Karolina Pluta
If ten-year-old Karolina’s dreams had come true, I would have become an athlete. However, I gave up running track in favour of running around the neighbourhood—not to win competitions, but to be part of a peer group. Sport gave me a flexible body, the ability to focus on goals, a sense of duty, and an acceptance of effort, disappointment, routine, and injuries. I have been working in culture for over twenty years. As well as pursuing my own artistic projects, I support the development of cultural professionals by providing tutoring, coaching, team supervision and anti-burnout workshops. I am there for others. I listen, empathise, ask questions and share in the losses and successes of the people I work with. I also explore working conditions in the cultural sector creatively, staging performances and conducting workshops.
I applied for the residency to take a closer look at my body, which is my greatest resource for creative and social work. My aim is to strengthen it so that I can consciously choose the cultural disciplines in which I wish to participate and to whom I wish to devote my attention and energy. When thinking about resilience, physical and mental health are the most important things to me. This became clear to me in autumn 2024 when a common cold turned into a debilitating illness that confined me to my home for weeks.
During the residency programme, I plan to reflect on my professional and creative future and consider how I can take on new challenges at the intersection of art and education. As part of the programme, I plan to work with a personal trainer to assess my physical capabilities. I intend to document this process through photographs and notes, creating a record of the emotional and physical sensations associated with exertion and rebuilding strength. This will serve as a memento for me, reminding me of what is truly important.
I believe that meeting and exchanging ideas with other artists and researchers will enable me to view my work from a fresh perspective, and to share the care, attention and inspiration that I am able to give to others.
I am a theatre educator, coach, social artist and performer. I create projects that combine education, art, and social activities to build spaces for dialogue and community. I run theatre workshops for young people and adults, facilitate participatory processes, and create performances. In 2025, as part of a scholarship from the City of Warsaw, I will be working on a stand-up show called Count to 10—a personal story about the experiences of mothers raising ‘difficult’ children. I have also been involved in counteracting professional burnout in the cultural sector for several years, conducting tutoring, coaching and development programmes for cultural staff. I graduated from the Laboratory of New Theatre Practices at SWPS University and studied coaching in Poland and the Netherlands. Since 2017, I have co-taught the Working with the Audience course on the Theatre Pedagogy postgraduate programme. Over the years, I have collaborated with numerous cultural institutions and NGOs in Poland and Europe, including the POLIN Museum, TR Warszawa, Nowy Teatr, the Museum of Modern Art and Uniarts Helsinki.
I work at the Association of Theatre Educators and the Culture Shock Foundation on a daily basis, implementing artistic and social projects and support programmes for people working in the cultural sector.